Are recruiters "on your side"?

Sep 4, 2021 20 Comments

I am lucky enough to have offers from a few companies. Many recruiters I talk to in the offer stage say it's "their job to get you the best possible offer", and because of this they want detailed information from me such as target comp, or other offer numbers. Are they actually "on my side"? I've heard many conflicting view points about this scenario.

Some people believe this to be nothing more than manipulation which encourages the candidate to hand over information like other offer numbers, further increasing information asymmetry between company and candidate.

Others seem to believe the recruiter really does want to get the biggest payout because they are only rewarded for filling head count and don't care what you cost (within pay band).

I ask this because I usually am closer to category 1. However, I recently came across this YouTube video where a Google recruiter states that category 2 is the reality: https://youtu.be/1rAWA6CsAGU?t=267

What do you think?

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TOP 20 Comments
  • Does the recruiter work for you? No. They are not on your side.

    They want you to get hired because their performance is based on closing candidates, but their job is also to convince people to join for as low a comp as they can get you to accept. Otherwise theyโ€™d just give everyone the top of band salary and close more people.
    Sep 4, 2021 10
    • Amazon
      alacazam

      Go to company page Amazon

      alacazam
      Iโ€™m with you on the thought of how it SHOULD go here, but that doesnโ€™t go over anywhere near as easily as youโ€™d think. Everyone is a superior candidate who should be given more than the max.
      Sep 4, 2021
    • Google
      100zeros

      Go to company page Google

      100zeros
      Gotta pay the piptax otherwise you'll only get the hire to fire engineers ๐Ÿ˜‚
      Sep 4, 2021
  • Google / Eng
    dsfgde34

    Go to company page Google Eng

    BIO
    Software Engineer
    dsfgde34
    No, recruiters, HR, manager no one is on your side. It's their job to BS and pretend to be your well wisher. You are at your own in corporate. Only family is on your side.
    Sep 4, 2021 0
  • Stripe
    wysywa

    Go to company page Stripe

    wysywa
    Have been an internal recruiter at many companies.

    I don't care how much you get paid. It's your money and I'm not the decision maker. I do have to put together a case and argue with a bunch of people to get you what you want, so ideally we do that together and don't look like a fool. I also have never worked at a company that measures me or pays me by number of hires, so I don't care if you take the offer or not.

    I do however care about how long you stay. Underpaying people leads to turnover, and there's nothing worse than a backfill. The worst thing we can do waste company money on a hire that leaves quickly, or worse: ruins morale so my job becomes impossible.

    Sometimes I have seen (not at my current company since I don't know anyone really, but previous ones) recruiters that are terrible with influencing their compensation and HR counterparts that then have to hard negotiate down their candidates because they can't put together a basic business case.
    Sep 4, 2021 0
  • Walmart / Eng
    jon12

    Go to company page Walmart Eng

    jon12
    HR is there to protect the company. HR is never on your side
    Sep 4, 2021 1
  • LinkedIn
    stonk๐Ÿ“ˆ๐Ÿ“ˆ๐Ÿ“ˆ

    Go to company page LinkedIn

    stonk๐Ÿ“ˆ๐Ÿ“ˆ๐Ÿ“ˆ
    They donโ€™t care how much you get paid. They do care about closing the deal. That means finding out about if you want more cash or stock and how much wiggle room there are to get what you want. Are there any competing offer and whether a sign on bonus is going to sway the decision, plus if they need to escalate the offer to VP to get what you want.

    A lot of this negotiation still means you need to know how much youโ€™re worth.
    Sep 4, 2021 0